The Uni

School.
So I forgot that I'm here for school. I have honestly had since December until well Monday is our first official day of class...so it's been my summer technically. At the "Uni" (what thie Kiwi's call the University) I am here for their first semester. It's sort of opposite of ours. I am officially enrolled in all my "papers" (classes). Such a relief! I am, however, still wishing I could just take dance courses. I went to the dance studies orientation today and met some of the students and faculty. I'm in love. It's exactly what I want. The professors are nice and seem to love their job. They make it interesting and it looks like it will be challenging. I hope I can open my mind and let myself be as creative as I hope to be! I like being an international student. Everybody here seems to love the way we talk. I don't know why, because I feel the same about them. Theirs is just...cooler! It will be funny to come home and think that I will still be the center of attention cause I won't be, or will I? That's kind of who I am so maybe. Haha...I am the princess! Just kidding, but it's really cool to know that they are just as intrigued by American culture as I am about theirs.

I'm a bit nervous about my business courses. I'm taking Macroeconomics and Marketing Managment. They have finals at the end of the semester and have two WHOLE weeks off before for preparation: a tad intimidating don't you think? I'm not very good at econ so I might be bustin my butt in that class, but many people like macro better than micro so I hope I'm okay!

Dance.
That's what I'm most excited for. I'm taking Dance Education....perfect if I want to teach dance, Dance and Technology, and maybe a Hip Hop "paper." I have to decide which ones I will keep yet, but Professor Ralph Buck saaaaaaaid that I could come to whatever class and get it all situated. Being here I just want to go ahead and major in dance. I could be done in no time at all. There are so many things you can actually do with it that people don't even think about. I won't go off about that, but it's a long list.

Orientation Week.
This week has flown by! Monday was the first day of orientation, but we felt like it was more for first year students so we just went to the welcome and got things taken care of that we needed. We ended up hiking from the East coast to the West coast. This was about a ten mile walk mind you. Worth it though. We got to see the Tasman Sea! Yeee dawg. We got to see Mt. Eden again which is the Volcano we saw on the first day. Tried to go in it, but someone ruined our bad-a behavior and was like "not supposed to go down there retards!" Psh...duh..we knew that dude! We were being total rule breakers. Whatever.

Anyways...we went to a place called Margharittas and got our dance on one night, went to another beach...I believe it was called Waheiki. The ferry was a little spendy...30 dollars, but the views were incredible. We laid on the beach for a few hours. I actually fell asleep it was so peaceful. I never fall asleep on the beach! Always too hot, but it was just right. This island had wineries all over. We hope to do a wine tasting at some point. Had a meat pie. Reminded me of Sweeny Todd so I was hesitant about trying it, but dang it was goooood! Try one if you haven't.

I don't know if I've mentioned their milkshakes, but they are the BOMB! I had one today. We went down to the harbor the other night and I got one too. This little Italian gelato place is our go-to spot. We love it!

Hung out with a Kiwi.
Yesterday while everyone and by everyone I mean my gang, crew, wolfpack, peeps, or friends, went surfing and got burnt, hit their heads on their boards and their muscles were giving out, I spent a relaxing day just shopping Queen Street. My friend Grant from Minnesota did AustraLearn last semester and studied at Waikaito and his friend Olivia added me to Facebook. She said she was from Auckland and would be willing to show me around when she was in town. I met her yesterday and she is such a sweetheart! Love her accent. We just talked about some of the differences, sterotypes of americans and kiwis. We didn't have time to go to the Auckland museum, but she said she comes home every couple of weekends and whenever I head to Waikaito to give her a ring! We both share a love for clothes so it was fun to see where she liked to shop here.

Boyz Noize
Mallory, Robbie, Rebecca, and I got tickets to Boyz Noize. No idea who this band is, but I decided to be a sheep and follow the others. It sounded really fun...kind of technoey (that's not a word) style of music. I don't know...I'm just super pumped for that and going to Backstreet Boys with Connor! That's like a dream come true.

Camping
Just booked our campsite for the weekend. We are going to take a ferry to another island. This place is supposed to be good to fish, hike, swim, and camp. This is our last hoorah before school starts. We are going to get children's sleeping bags so we can do this camping thing tomorrow night. I'm sooo excited! Haven't been camping in awhile. Well...we can't cause you all know it snows in Minnesota! I won't be by a computer for awhile, but I will let you know how the weekend goes! Ps. Anyone in need of children's sleeping bags?


Ouch. My fingers hurt.



♥ Haylee